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Young boy OK after getting struck by bat

Young boy OK after getting struck by bat

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Miami Marlins' Giancarlo Stanton loses control of his bat off a pitch by Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija during the sixth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2013, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

By Manny Randhawa and Carrie Muskat
/
MLB.com |

CHICAGO -- A young boy was struck in the face by a bat at Wrigley Field on Wednesday, but he returned after the freak accident to watch the Cubs rally to beat the Marlins.

With one out in the top of the sixth inning, Giancarlo Stanton was facing Jeff Samardzija when the slugger swung and missed, and his bat flew into the seats near the Cubs' dugout, about seven rows away from the field. Anyone watching could only cringe as the bat struck the boy.

The father grabbed the boy, believed to be 3 years old, and left the seating area, and his mother followed. Their identities were not revealed.

"That's a tough little kid right there," Samardzija said. "That didn't hit anything but that kid's jaw. It went right into his face. They got him out of there. It was tough to see. They brought the kid back and it looked like he was doing all right. He'll have a good story for the rest of his life -- he took a bat to his face and walked away from it. That was weird to see."

The family went to the first aid area at Wrigley, and they later returned for the rest of the game. The boy got to keep the bat.

"It's obviously something you never want to have happen, and it's not like I hit a ball out there, [so] I actually did something half-right," Stanton said. "Thank goodness he was all right, because the way his dad carried him off, it was like, the worst."

The father grabbed the boy and hustled him out of the seating area immediately.

"That was terrible," said Stanton, who watched the family leave before resuming play. "I don't have kids, but I have nieces and nephews, and I see a lot of the guys' kids around here all the time. It's never a good thing to see."